Additonal category in CM2 for documentation

dadolson · Sep 24, 2009

I'm wondering if any thought has been given to adding a category to CM that would allow users to actually store documenation to make it freely accessable to the communirty at large.

What I'm thinking is there are a lot of really usefull and what some may consider vital documents sitting out there in the inet world on various sites, but no central repositoryto be able to place them where every one can get to them. One other thing is we get free version control by using it.

The way webistes can come and go these days it sure would be nice to have the oppertunity to use the DLS to download tutorials and other documentation of interest.

Dave

mjolnir · Sep 24, 2009

There are at least two candidates for the title of "central repository"! The documentation format has changed in 2009, so that it includes access to a WIKI created by Auran at

<http://game.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/Main_Page>.

It has very little serious content at the moment, and no one seems to be working at updating it.

A second candidate is the content included at WIKIbooks

<http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz>

which has considerably more user content, but is not an "official" site.

It would be nice if many of these item you mention: documentation, and how-tos, and tutorials could be included in one of these two sources, but there are copyright considerations involved; one could link to them, but hosting them on a different site without permission violates copyright, at least in the jurisdiction I know best, and where I understand the servers to be located (USA).

ns

JCitron · Sep 24, 2009

The idea of a link to documentation on CMP is a good idea particularly if this is for some of the more complicated assets.

A category for documentation could be linked to by the content creator so that the "How to" stuff can be accessed easily.

As it stands now, there are many assets that have installation and usage instructions right in the content folder its self, but this is very difficult to access, and I usually forget about it being there when I go to use the assets.

Something to thnk about perhaps for a newer versions...

John

mjolnir · Sep 25, 2009

I think documentation for assets should be included in the download; as such, on the DLS it would be embedded in the ~.cdp file, and would not be visible separately.

Items that do have documentation should include an icon (like the "IND" or "LARS" icons on some rolling stock. My suggestion: "DOX".

ns

dadolson · Sep 25, 2009

The concept of using the DLS is it is a common place for all things TrainZ.

It is complete with version control. Which is pretty much a requirement for any document library I have ever worked with.

Currently only Object and Rolling Stock/Locomotives have the capbability of, with in Surveyor, to even attemp to introduce any sort of online, while in use documentation, via the edit properties interface. To have a usage file be able to be loaded and diplayed in the browser window via that interface may prove to be worth while as well.

What I'd like to see and can envision, another interface command that is open Asset document, the document it self needs to be in either a plan text file or a PDF file which can then be opened in the Browser window used for help right now.
Files that are uploaded as a Word Document or even HTML could easily behind the scenes be stored as a PDF via components that are readily available.
Part of this deals with what happens when a Asset is uploaded to the DLS.

PDf is suggested because it is perhaps the most reconigizable format for supporting both images and text and most users already have the required viewing componet avaialbe, and if not then it is easily installed, plus there ara number of end user addon capable items that emulate printers to produce a PDf file. (I could tell you what I use, but hat is nother discussion).

As it sits, the Online help browser, at least for my TS2009 with SP2 installed won't accept any url other than the default one, so accessing the Wiki from within Surveyor is a no go today. ( I tired it as I was writing this)

What I'm envisioning, if I may ramble on a little more, is tieing a KUID to the asset, which is a special doc kuid, accessable from the DLS search and also sent to the users machine when the asset is downloaded, so that from within Surveyor, so you don't have to go though the steps of opening the asset in edit mode to read the document because it is embeded as is suggest as a favorite place by some posters.

The addional concept of the Wiki is valid as well, however as pointed out already, both are seldom used, have minimal content, although the ebook Wiki has more than the Auran sponsored one, and not accessable currently from within Surveyor itself.

Dave

johnwhelan · Sep 25, 2009

mjolnir said:
There are at least two candidates for the title of "central repository"! The documentation format has changed in 2009, so that it includes access to a WIKI created by Auran at

<http://game.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/Main_Page>.

It has very little serious content at the moment, and no one seems to be working at updating it.

A second candidate is the content included at WIKIbooks

<http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz>

which has considerably more user content, but is not an "official" site.

It would be nice if many of these item you mention: documentation, and how-tos, and tutorials could be included in one of these two sources, but there are copyright considerations involved; one could link to them, but hosting them on a different site without permission violates copyright, at least in the jurisdiction I know best, and where I understand the servers to be located (USA).

ns

I accept that the wikibook Trainz is not the official site but on the other hand it does offer an alternative / stable repository for documentation should Auran go under or lose the contents of its servers as happened to the contents of the forum once before.

Cheerio John

johnwhelan · Sep 25, 2009

dadolson said:
The concept of using the DLS is it is a common place for all things TrainZ.

It is complete with version control. Which is pretty much a requirement for any document library I have ever worked with.

Currently only Object and Rolling Stock/Locomotives have the capbability of, with in Surveyor, to even attemp to introduce any sort of online, while in use documentation, via the edit properties interface. To have a usage file be able to be loaded and diplayed in the browser window via that interface may prove to be worth while as well.

What I'd like to see and can envision, another interface command that is open Asset document, the document it self needs to be in either a plan text file or a PDF file which can then be opened in the Browser window used for help right now.
Files that are uploaded as a Word Document or even HTML could easily behind the scenes be stored as a PDF via components that are readily available.
Part of this deals with what happens when a Asset is uploaded to the DLS.

PDf is suggested because it is perhaps the most reconigizable format for supporting both images and text and most users already have the required viewing componet avaialbe, and if not then it is easily installed, plus there ara number of end user addon capable items that emulate printers to produce a PDf file. (I could tell you what I use, but hat is nother discussion).

As it sits, the Online help browser, at least for my TS2009 with SP2 installed won't accept any url other than the default one, so accessing the Wiki from within Surveyor is a no go today. ( I tired it as I was writing this)

What I'm envisioning, if I may ramble on a little more, is tieing a KUID to the asset, which is a special doc kuid, accessable from the DLS search and also sent to the users machine when the asset is downloaded, so that from within Surveyor, so you don't have to go though the steps of opening the asset in edit mode to read the document because it is embeded as is suggest as a favorite place by some posters.

The addional concept of the Wiki is valid as well, however as pointed out already, both are seldom used, have minimal content, although the ebook Wiki has more than the Auran sponsored one, and not accessable currently from within Surveyor itself.

Dave

I think my concern would be linking the documentation to the asset, especially when it is written by some one else perhaps at a later date.

Cheerio John

Additonal category in CM2 for documentation

dadolson

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mjolnir

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JCitron

Trainzing since 12-2003

mjolnir

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dadolson

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johnwhelan

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johnwhelan

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